The Kings, congratulating each other after defeating the San Jose Sharks 4-1 in Game 6 in the first round of the NHL Western Conference playoffs Monday night at Staples Center, are just the ninth NHL team to force a Game 7 after losing the first three games of a playoff series. (Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer)

Kings coach Darryl Sutter and goaltender Jonathan Quick were their customary dour and contrary selves when asked Tuesday about the significance of Game 7 of their first-round playoff series against the San Jose Sharks.

Ho-hum, just another game, just another day at the office.

Luckily, the smiling personalities of forward Mike Richards and Drew Doughty were also made available to reporters at the team’s El Segundo headquarters. They seemed genuinely excited by the prospect of becoming only the fourth team in NHL history to win a best-of-7 series after trailing 3-0.

The Kings became only the ninth NHL team to force a series to a Game 7 after trailing 3-0, after a third-period surge that carried them to a 4-1 victory over the lifeless Sharks in Game 6 on Monday at Staples Center.

The Kings can join the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, the 1975 New York Islanders and the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers as the only teams to overcome 3-0 deficits if they win tonight in San Jose. Tonight’s winner advances to play the Anaheim Ducks in the second round.

Sutter, in particular, took great pains to remind everyone that a Game 7 is a Game 7 and that it didn’t matter how the Kings got to this point. He overlooked the fact that the Kings’ route is highly unusual, particularly when you consider the NHL dates to 1917 and the Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893.

Quick simply looked as if the gallows awaited him as he spoke curtly to reporters.

Enter Richards and then Doughty and a reprieve from the thousand-mile stares.

Richards was a member of the Flyers when they rebounded from a 3-0 series deficit to the Boston Bruins. He smiled and laughed heartily when it was suggested he was an expert on miraculous postseason comebacks.

“It’s exciting,” Richards said. “I think everyone is looking forward to (tonight). Game 7s are exciting in their own right, let alone how we got into this situation. I think everyone is looking forward to it that much more. … It’s not the most conventional way to go through a series.

“But you’ve got to win in different ways.”

The Kings’ grit and tenacity coupled with Quick’s otherworldly goaltending enabled them to become the first eighth-seeded team to win a Stanley Cup when they won the franchise’s first and only title in 2012. They used the same formula to reach the Western Conference finals last season.

After a nightmarish start to their first-round series against the Sharks, which including a pair of one-sided defeats in Games 1 and 2 in San Jose and were followed by an overtime loss in Game 3 at Staples Center, the Kings regained their mojo. They won Games 4, 5 and 6 in familiar fashion.

The Kings talked about improved play with the puck — controlling it rather than chasing it — as one of the reasons for their comeback. They also spoke about a desire to defeat the Sharks, a team they’ve grown to dislike after a playoff win last spring and a loss in 2011.

“Definitely not nervous, just excited about the position we put ourselves in, but we’re not done,” Doughty said. “This is what you ask for, to give yourself a chance to win. But we’re not satisfied. We want to beat this team, especially this team, the San Jose Sharks. …

Elliott Teaford covers the Clippers and the NBA for the Southern California News Group. He has written about hockey for the past five years and is looking forward to thawing out after so many days and nights sitting in frozen rinks. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.

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